Jack Duffy Movies

Lots of people have misgiving about their in-laws, but in this offbeat comedy, a man discovers that his new son-in-law's father is significantly stranger than he's able to deal with. Jerry Peyser (Albert Brooks) is a well-meaning but slightly anal-retentive podiatrist who doesn't much care for surprises in his life. When his daughter Melissa (Lindsay Sloane) announces she's going to marry her boyfriend, Mark Tobias (Ryan Reynolds), Jerry figures that helping his wife plan the wedding and getting through the ceremony is as much excitement as he needs or wants. However, when Jerry and his wife, Katherine (Maria Ricossa), meet Mark's father for the first time, Steve Tobias (Michael Douglas) ends up taking Jerry on the ride of his life. Both Mark and Steve's ex-wife, Judy (Candice Bergen), seem to have a decidedly ambivalent attitude about Steve, and Jerry finds out why -- Steve is actually an undercover agent for the CIA. In the guise of doing Steve a favor, Jerry gets dragged into a strange and dangerous episode involving international arms dealers, French super-villains, heavily armed men's room attendants, and a stolen private jet belonging to Barbra Streisand, as well as several less-than-pleasant encounters with Angela (Robin Tunney), Steve's colleague in espionage who doesn't trust Jerry. The In-Laws was adapted from the memorable 1979 comedy of the same name, in which Alan Arkin and Peter Falk played the mismatched fathers. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Produced by actress Mimi Rogers (who shows up on screen in the role of Aunt Marion) and directed by actor Eric Stoltz, the made-for-cable movie My Horrible Year! is the story of Nik Faulkner (Allison Mack), a 16-year-old girl about to undergo a crucial rite of passage: the removal of her braces. Nik's exultation over this momentous event is dampened by the antics of her weird friends and her combative parents -- not to mention her zany Uncle Charlie (played by Stoltz) who insists upon being a bother even though he's dead. From time to time, Nik is lectured by her mirror-image alter ego, which only exacerbates her other problems. Things come to a head when Nik endeavors to prevent her parents from getting a divorce -- or at least that's what she thinks she's doing. Produced by Millbrook Farm Productions for the Showtime cable network, My Horrible Year! originally aired on July 8, 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The late comedian John Candy directed this made-for-television black comedy. George Wendt stars as Warren Kooey, a poor slob with a vicious wife and a nasty boss. Wooey wants to escape his miserable existence, so he decides to stage his own kidnapping to get away from his tormentors and find some peace far, far away. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

The eponymous team consists of four residents of a New Jersey psychiatric hospital: ex-postal worker Henry Sikorsky (Christopher Lloyd), who fancies himself a doctor; one-time ad agency exec Jack McDermott (Peter Boyle), suffering from a Messiah/martyr complex; writer Billy Caulfield (Michael Keaton), who cannot abide the "idiots" in the world (namely, everyone but himself); and TV-obsessed Albert Ianuzzi (Stephen Furst). Permitted a field trip to a baseball game, the four unfortunates wander off when psychiatrist Dr. Weitzman (Dennis Boutsikaris) is waylaid by two corrupt police officers after he witnesses them killing a third cop. The innocent inmates are accused of attacking Dr. Weitzman, but it is they who team up to bring the actual culprits to justice. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A Canadian-Australian coproducton which originally aired over Australia's 7 Network, the six-hour miniseries Spearfield's Daughter stars Kim Braden as the title character. The daughter of a prominent and powerful Australian politician (Chris Wiggins), Cleo Spearfield (Kim Braden) incurs her father's wrath by becoming a reporter, with the Vietnam war as her "beat." When not dodging bullets and negotiating rice paddies, Cleo is wooed by two attractive gentemen, gonzo American journalist Tom Border (Steve Railsback) and Murdoch-like British publishing mogul Lord Jack Cruze (Christopher Plummer. Adapted by Jon Cleary from his own novel, Spearfield's Daughter was syndicated to the US beginning the week of May 25, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Flawed and problematic, this romantic comedy is about Abigail Adams (Suzanne Somers), a sexy, talented, and dedicated lawyer, her new client Prof. Roger Keller (Donald Sutherland), and their fight to save baby seals from slaughter. The issue was a hot one, but the film as a whole does not rise to the occasion. The good professor manages to get the attention of Washington brass, and the good lawyer manages to get the attention of the professor, so the battle against the corporate devil (Lawrence Z. Dane) in charge of the mayhem begins. And the battle of the sexes is played out against that backdrop. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The Canadian "sleeper" The Silent Partner stars Elliott Gould as a teller, Miles Cullen, who figures out psycho Harry Reikle's (Christopher Plummer) scheme to rob his bank, several days ahead of time. Cullen providently squirrels away 50,000 dollars in a safety-deposit box before Reikle strikes. After the robbery, the papers report the amount of the bank's loss. Reikle realizes that there's 50,000 extra bucks floating around that he hasn't gotten his hands on. The soft-spoken but sadistic Reikle puts the screws on Cullen to fork over the dough -- but Cullen has lost the deposit-box key. Be forewarned: this one gets extremely brutal and bloody at times, with sudden bursts of graphic violence. Also featured is Susannah York as the fluctuating-loyalty heroine, and a very young and hairy John Candy. Future L.A. Confidential scribe Curtis Hanson loosely adapted the Danish novel Think of a Number, by Anders Bodelsen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It was not for nothing that singer Jack Duffy was labeled "the Canadian Frank Sinatra." Both men shared the same casual, slightly insouciant style, and both had worked as vocalists for the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. Arguably, Duffy was the more versatile of the two, a gifted comedian and impressionist. Much in demand as a guest star on Canadian TV and radio throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Duffy was finally rewarded with his own weekly variety series, which started as a summer replacement on June 21, 1958 and remained on the air for at least three years. The writers included Allan Manings, later the co-creator of the U.S. sitcom One Day at a Time, and Frank Peppiatt and John Aylesworth, the men responsible for the enduring cornpone variety hour Hee Haw. After wrapping up work on Here's Duffy, Jack Duffy was seen as a comedy regular on such American and Canadian series as The Perry Como Show and Half the George Kirby Comedy Hour; he is perhaps best known to younger viewers as the narrator of the popular Curious George cartoons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide